Ukraine's Naftogaz expects to get $8 billion from Russia for assets in the Crimea

Tuesday, March 13, 2018 5:00:46 PM

Ukraine’s claim against the Russian Federation for seized Crimean assets, taking into account the interest, comes to $8 billion, said the chief commercial director of Naftogaz Ukraine Yuriy Vitrenko.

“Already this year we can win up to eight billion dollars. The claim is for damages. What happens when these assets are returned is a separate issue. The defendant is the Russian government. Five billion was without interest, and eight billion was with expected interest,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

In September 2017, Naftogaz and six other companies in its group filed a lawsuit with a tribunal under the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The suit demands that Russia pay damages in connection with the seizure of assets in the Crimea.

It is expected that the case will be heard at the end of May 2018.

In the Crimea and on the shelf, Naftogaz lost 15 oil and gas fields; three prospective oil and gas fields; the Glebovskoye underground gas storage; over 1,200 km of gas pipelines; 43 gas distribution stations; 29 floating units; four floating drilling rigs, including two modern high-tech ones – Pyotr Godunovets and Nezavisimost – as well as many other aspects of the industrial infrastructure. Additionally, the opportunity to develop fields with reserves of about 50 billion cubic meters of gas, 3.5 million tons of oil and one million tons of gas condensate were lost.